Book: Pablo Escobar and Colombian Narcoculture – Literature Review

Giving a bit of context, I hate the fact that I am reading a book with this title and that it is one of the only books I was able to find in the UAL library on Colombian aesthetics, which compelled me to read it specifically, since, from all of my research, the narco-culture is one of the main reasons why the importance of aesthetics exists in Colombia. I, as a Colombian person whose family suffered from the violence and all of the things that Pablo Escobar did, would prefer not to perpetuate information about him; for example, I have never watched a TV show. However, for this study, I needed to look at this book and sections of it so I could see what has been researched and what is missing. 

INTRODUCTION:

• The introduction starts by speaking about a picture which was very important and seen in Colombian media of hippopotamuses who were being hunted or exterminated, “…whose only transgression was to be out of place, a species foreign to yet thriving in Colombia”(pg.1). What this is telling me is how there are environments in which certain people or things are not welcome. The animal was part of a project Pablo Escobar ran, where he broke many international laws about flora and fauna. He wanted his house to have animals from all over the globe; this included giraffes, zebras, kangaroos, and many more, but many of them could not survive the climate and other factors in the area, and some were taken to zoos. However, the 4 original Hippos stayed at Hacienda Napoles, where they kept living and reproducing, which created a lot of fear about public safety. 
• After his death, there started to be more of a stage for him to be portrayed: “What his killers could not imagine was that Escobar’s legacy would change Colombian cultural production in print and on the screen for years to come, promoting the creation of multimedial narcocultura and replicating the narco lifestyle in television, literature, music, architecture, language, fashion, the female beauty ideal, and social rituals, including those associated with death”(pg.3). This is showing the way that even though he died, this gave him a platform. He became even more well known, and Colombia became known for his history. All of the illegal things that he did, including the murders and kidnappings, are still in the light today, and some people are still scared to visit the country even though there has been so much growth in the tourism sector; however, his tombstone is still something people want to see whenever they visit. 
• There were a lot of different players when it came to the world of Pablo Escobar and the culture that he left behind: “…prepagos (high-end prostitutes), and silicone-enhanced trophy women, it would become a defining feature of the nation’s media landscape” (pg. 3). This shows us that the way that women were portrayed as play toys and something to observe and be changed based on the aesthetics of the time is even upsetting and sad that they are called the names they are called. 
• Sadly, this has become a selling point. There are thousands of books throughout the entire industry of Colombia from his family members, mistresses, and people who were his accomplices; there is even one, “…Madame Rochy, who claims to have procured the most desirable Colombian women for her wealthy criminal clients”(pg. 4). How is this something to brag about? How is this something to be proud of, and that you openly talk about it was breaking the law and making women into objects to be used by men instead of them being actual people and being treated as such. 
• There are many reasons why the area of Medellin was so large in the production and market of cocaine, “Of course, there were plenty of reasons Colombians, and particularly paisas, the inhabitants of the Antioquia/Medellin region, quickly took up trafficking in cocaine: their well-known penchant for commerce, the decline of the textile industry in Medellin, and the subsequent economic recession, which increased interest in illicit economies…”(pg. 10). This shows us the reasoning why Medellin specifically ended up being so impacted by the narco culture aswell because it was what they lived off of when the economy started to decline and everything started to change because their economy was based on something that was declining and this had effects on the factthat people needed something else to do they could not just stay waiting for things to change, I dont believe that they took the right path but this explains why Medelin was so important in this context. 
• In this chapter, there is a lot of context about drug trafficking and the cartel. Still, there was not much relevance to my topic and subject, which is why I did not make notes on all of the chapter but on the points that I considered important and relevant.

CHAPTER 5: Mad about boobs

• The chapter in this book that interested me, specifically for Colombian aesthetics and the female body, is “Mad about Boobs” (pg. 166). The idea is that there is no television without having a specific kind of woman’s body: “The truth is that in Colombia there is no television without breasts. Television has brought home the narcotaste, silicone, and the money ethic” (pg.166). This really tells me that there is a stereotype in the Colombian media: a certain body is seen as the norm. It is important to think about the people we admire in this medium; specifically in Colombia, for example, finding influencers who show a different body type has been a struggle, and it’s something I need to look into further. “We the bandits would fall for tits and ass, we used to marry mafia dolls” (pg. 166). Why are they considered mafia dolls when they were the ones who created them? They were told that they needed to look a certain way to have a certain life, and it is so extreme that there are even girls who are television presenters, and doctors ask them if they want any free surgeries or anything in that style. This is something that I also saw in a personal interview with a man in his 70s in Colombia called Julio Toro, who told me that the problems with body image in Colombia started with the doctors wanting to make a fortune and doing it through this.
• “The iconography of the Escobar brand, of exacerbated visibility and an unlimited power of consumption, presupposes a constraint influx of female groupies whose sheer number and anonymity only shore up the narco’s cachet” (pg. 166). This shows the idea that power, since this was the form of money and power at the time of Pablo Escobar, was to show one could afford the surgeries and not only that but also the idea that the more beautiful and perfect your wife or woman looks, the more powerful you are as a man. 
• “The epithets attached to these girls – CDT(“carne de traqueto”, loosely translated to narco meat [Colorado Grisales 103]), muñecas (dolls), and prepagos…” (pg.166) This shows me how women were seen as objects. Men almost always surrounded them, and men gave them their names and value. It was all they could do, and this was just the way that the world was. 
• “…go-betweens responsible for the steady supply of adolescent virgins for the patron, would store ‘fresh meat’ for his entourage in different houses across Medellin” How is this somethignt hat was socially acceptable this young girls were used for their body and were probably not even given a choice there is actually a song that used to play in Colombia called Pablo Escobar which I just thought of where girls were invited to his house and if they said no they were threatened that their entire family was going to get killed and that even if they were dead they would revive them and kill them again. 
• “While they could afford to buy almost anything, underprivileged (and privileged) youth could join in the fun only if their attractiveness simulated the narcos’ desire and sense of self-worth” (pg. 167). This is where the asthetic and pressure I believe originally comes from because at the time I would asume that it was cool or nice to be one of the women who were sutounded by this men and that they could take them on trips and give them money that nothing else could which leads to the assumption that all of the girls who wanted to be a part of this life were looking at the main girls and trying to replicate their look, “The idealized look included hyperbolic voluptuousness with an exaggerated bosom, which, in accordance with the notions of the postmoder instability of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’, did not need to be authentic. Narcos customarily bankrolled plastic surgeries to create an experience straight from Baywatch, whose richly endowed women were epitomized by Paela Anderson. Soon enough, as Roldan puts it, the narco taste for excess and artificial enhancement spilled over to society as a whole:’Pert models with busting decolletages and reinforced rear ends touting everything from beer to lingerie intrude as constant reminders of the feminine ideal the concaine trade fashioned into a societal norm from plastic surgery’(“Colombia 179”)”(pg. 168) This is really somethign to look at because there si specifically one word that is used which is excess and I can connect this to my reading and research about fat phobia and African body archeotype and what this makes me think is that they are doing the same thing in the assumption that bigger as in breasts and plastic surgery means more consumption which is not necesarily true. Of course, there is more consumption because there is a payment for a specific body size; however, it is a personal choice of an aesthetic which shows an election and a choice. Being a “narco doll,” as they were called earlier, became the norm, and people wanted to fit into and aspire to it because of the trend, even though it wasn’t part of their reality before. 
• There is more information when it comes to this aesthetic: “…credits the linkage of trophy women and narcos to none other than Pablo Escobar…’He was the super rock star of the day. Anything he did became that big and lavish…very narco aesthetic, which has spilled beyond the drug trafficking milieu, had its origins in the capo: ‘Escobar liked his ladies, and he often liked them ‘operadas’, or [aesthetically] operated…example to follow for those who had the means to do so. Pablo Escobar made [aesthetic surgery] more socially and culturally acceptable…He almost made it unacceptable to not change’” (pg. 168). This shows us the level of power he had. People ended up following his example, and it became the standard. It became so much of a standard that girls who are graduating high school get their breasts done for their graduation presents and get their nice jobs for their 15th birthday. It has become a culture and society so obsessed with fitting into the aesthetic standard that it is scary not to fit into it. There is extreme ostracism for those who do not change themselves; for example, there is the saying to shoot their beak to look better, but never under the idea of health and wellness, but under being embarrassed about looking a certain way with their body. 
• There is a very famous novel and Telenovela called “Sin tetas no hay paraiso,” which translates to without boobs there is no paradise. When they asked the author what the inspiration for this novela was, this is what came up: “Gustavo Bolívar Moreno recalled his encounter with the fourteen-year-old Catalina, who approached him while he was working in the city of Pereira. She wanted to know how to become an actress so she could afford breast implants from a competent plastic surgeon, which would in turn secure for her a powerful sugar daddy” (pg.169). This shows that people aspired to accomplish this. They wanted to do it, and they thought it would bring them a good life; he wanted to bring to light how bizarre he thought it was and how he could bring it to life. 
• “…Young Colombian girls who aspire to narco glitz – Even if only as prostitutes with fake breast”(pg. 170). This shows me that there are girls who aspire to be this. There is a large amount of inheritance that we get from narco trafficking and the business in general. Still, I find it sad that this is something young girls aspire to be. I understand that this is not all young girls, and many of them have other aspirations, but the thought that this is all they think they can do with their lives is very sad. 
• “Tackling in a single story the subjects of underage prostitution, obsession with beauty, and loose morals opened up a can of worms for sin tetas, earning the book enormous popularity and criticism at the same time”(pg. 170). This is a book that got a lot of criticism, and there was the issue that where it was set was seen for a long time as only this, and that is scary because having a place only be represented by one story is ot just sad, but it is almost a prejudice that they have to deal with. 
• “The venerable Spanish proverb ‘tiran mas dos tetas que dos carretas ’ (loosely translated as ‘A pair of breasts pulls harder than two wagons’) does not fall into Bolivar’s assertion of women’s sexual power, particularly when and if she happens to be well endowed”(pg. 173). This shows how much importance and power are given to women and their appearance. If this is a teaching you have grown up with your entire life, it’s hard not to think your value is in your physical appearance and that if you don’t look a certain way, you won’t get anywhere in life. 
• “True Catalina’s new breast ensure her luxurious future, but, in satisfying her adolescent dream, she simply transfers her voracious consumer appetite to the next signifier”(pg. 181). This makes me think about young girls who are chasing a weight or a goal, and the second that they reach it, they start thinking that they need to lose more and they are not happy with it, so they are always thinking about what comes next and never truly being happy about what is going on. 
• “Having grown up accustomed to believing that her enhanced body will guarantee success, the heroine becomes detached from reality and certainly from her roots, alienating her childhood friends and even Marcial with her growing demands”(pg. 181). The same thing I said above applies: this belief or thought becomes a given, and it leads people to focus on aesthetics instead of other things in life that I consider more important. For example, one thing that comes to mind is that when I was having a lot of struggles with my eating, I remember I was sad and thought no one loved me because I was fat, and a close friend asked me if I seriously thought that she was going to like me more or love me more if I was thinner. I answered yes, ashamed, because that is what I thought at the time, and it not only made me sad but also made me realize that my beliefs were very strong and that I had to face them head-on. 
• “…chauvinistic approach to women and the shameless exploitation of the female body, which has no function other than the decorative, testing the spectators with nudity and female curves”(pg 192). This was a criticism of the TV novel; however, I think it is extremely hard to look at this because I have always been told that we need to understand the past so we don’t keep repeating it. Since the Narco time in Colombia is such a taboo subject and we are not taught about it, we are just told to ignore it and not do the same things; some patterns can grow and lead to different situations, and that is why it is hidden. 
• Apart from all of the ideas above, there was also a large issue with this new telenovela. It was the new idea that this city only has two things, which are hit men and prostitutes, and to be fair, this is far from the truth, and media such as this only exemplifies and makes information worse when there are heavy subjects. For example, this region is known for coffee production as well as agronomy and textiles, and this TV show made it seem like that was all there was; however, this is something that happens in Colombia a lot, especially when it comes to telenovelas. 
• I also looked at the biography to find relevant information or sources for the rest of my investigation, and even though there were a few, the book mostly focuses on Pablo Escobar and the effect narco-culture had on Colombia. At some point in the chapter, the information about body image stopped, and it shifted to the author’s moral responsibilities and the characters he portrayed, which left me with very little information in that part. 

Pobutsky, A.B. (2025) Pablo Escobar and Colombian narcoculture pobutsky, Aldona Bialowas. University of Florida Press.